She had raged around her private hospital room, breaking everything in sight, until orderlies came to subdue her, and in her fury she had kicked, scratched and bitten until a doctor had run in with a hypodermic to calm her. They had strapped her to the bed and this morning a psychiatrist had been in to talk to her. Still unsatisfied that she was no danger to herself, he had kept her on sedatives with arms and legs immobilized.

Priscilla still wanted Mark Denning back now more than ever, and more than ever hated DesirЋe for coming between her and the man she wanted and deserved. The auburn-haired girl now understood what had to happen. The only way to protect herself from DesirЋe's blackmail was to see the young woman permanently out of the way, and soon. So the spoiled and scheming Priscilla Devereaux resolved to bide her time for another day quietly, until they removed the straps and sent her home.

How would she do it? Arrange a car accident? Poison? Yes, that sounded good. Arsenic, so the little singing bitch would die puking her guts out. Or maybe just a gun? That was a pretty awful death in itself, Priscilla knew, much worse than any depiction in any movie she had seen. She would have time to decide this afternoon, while she waited for these idiots to remove her bindings.

While his erstwhile lover mentally plotted to murder his lovely, loving young bride, Mark Denning was finishing his meeting with Buchanan and Mr. al-Mazkum. The afternoon had been an education in practical politics, and not a pleasant one at that. Mark found himself faced with the necessity of gross conflicts of interest and dishonesty if he were to ever become elected to office through the influence of Buchanan and his many powerful business cohorts. It was amazing the power, all silent and under the table, that these men wielded in the government of his country, even to foreigners like the sinister al-Mazkum, whose dark, smokey eyes hid much more than his words could ever reveal. Mark was beginning to feel soiled by all the covert and immoral activities he saw rising around himself on the front of state politics.